Center for Automotive Research (CAR)
The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) will manage a suite of advanced manufacturing initiatives including: the Program for Automotive Renaissance (PAR) incubator; the Automotive Communities Program (ACP) for aggregating automotive assets seeking to overcome industry challenges; the Program for Automotive Labor Education (PALE) that focuses on workforce training and skills gaps; and the Global Automotive Marketing Program (GAMP) which assists the region's suppliers in accessing new markets. We expect the combined impact of these programs to bring 600 new jobs and retain 525 jobs in the region.

Greater Flint Health Coalition
The Greater Flint Health Coalition will expand the successful career lattice program model used by the Flint Healthcare Employment Opportunity project geographically (in strategic locations in the region) and apply the model in new healthcare occupations. The model emphasizes career exploration and advancement services for current healthcare workers, and diversity training for hospital staff -- aimed at reducing turnover rates -- and retraining programs that transition unemployed and displaced workers from other industries into healthcare occupations, as well as specific nurse education initiatives. By the end of the WIRED grant period, we expect the project to deliver 125 new healthcare workers (trained and placed into entry to mid-level healthcare jobs), expanded opportunities for young people to connect to healthcare career exploration/learning opportunities, and new FHEO-linked training and employment opportunities across the region.

Kettering University
Kettering University manages the Center for Fuel Cell Systems and Powertrain Integration, an incubator focused on research, education and commercialization of fuel cell systems. Working with key industry partners, the Center will launch a math and science teacher-training program--including the first summer pre-college (8th-11th grades) program scheduled for the summer of 2007, and establish a teaching laboratory. It will also launch a graduate program in Hybrid Technologies. Finally, working with Saginaw Valley State University's entrepreneurship and incubator programs, it will make its wealth of research and technical expertise available to firms and aspiring inventors from across the region.

Lansing Community College
Lansing Community College will launch an entrepreneurship curriculum (12 sections of entrepreneurship courses) designed to prepare the student to own his/her business by helping the student identify: a specialty area coupled with entrepreneurship; the steps to developing a business plan; financing, launching the business; and managing a new business. Academic course work, seminars for current and potential small business owners, and a business incubator will provide emerging small businesses with services including advice, counseling and mentoring. A small business service and technology incubator will be launched to foster the start-up and growth of new companies with ties to the Lansing Community College Small Business Exploration Certificate of Completion and Associates in Business. The incubator is expected to accommodate up to 40 companies for each year of the grant for a total of 120 companies. Lansing Community College is working with the Mid-Michigan Intermediate School Districts, the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center, and Saginaw Valley State University in the implementation of this initiative. At the end of the 3-year grant period, the anticipated results are:

1. 40 new businesses launched
2. 200 K-12 students introduced to entrepreneurship, and 80 graduating seniors entered into the post-secondary credit and noncredit entrepreneurship programs
3. 20 people completed of the Entrepreneurship Studies Certificate and/or Associates Degree program
4. 240 small business and potential small business owners trained through contracted seminars
5. 240 occupational program students completed entrepreneurial studies courses

Lansing Community College will also launch a 3-year healthcare initiative with focus on several innovative programs that will result in:

1. Accelerated prior-degree Nursing program to add 32 nurses, who hold bachelor's degrees in some other area, to the workforce per year
2. Addition of credentialed respiratory therapists to the Fast Track Nursing program, where licensed paramedics and practical nurses may enter Nursing with advanced standing and become Registered Nurses (RNs) in one year, adding an additional 32 nurses to the workforce per year
3. Development of 30 Nursing preceptors, by providing stipends to nurses working in area healthcare institutions to complete BSN programs in preparation for becoming faculty preceptors for Nursing students, and to assist with clinical placements for Nursing students
4. Upgrading of one K-12 health technology program to prepare 24 students per year for Certified Nurse Assistant (CENA) certification upon completion
5. Upgrading of another K-12 health program to prepare 24 students per year for EMT certification upon completion
6. Introduction of an estimated 150 K-12 students to the healthcare workplace through working with the Intermediate School Districts (ISDs) in Ingham, Clinton, and Eaton counties and developing job shadowing, cooperative employment, and volunteering opportunities in a multitude of healthcare institutions
7. Development of an additional career ladder program--CENA to LPN

Michigan State University
Michigan State University, in collaboration with Dow Chemical Company, Dow-Corning, and a variety of investors and stakeholders, will find ways to grow and process bio-fuels as alternatives to increasingly expensive petroleum and fossil fuels, and seed the development of Mid-Michigan's bio-economy. MSU will develop a video and computer-based training curriculum to prepare workers for employment in this emerging industry and develop a hands-on bio-refinery demonstration site. We expect 640 adults to enroll in training over the course of the grant period.

Mott Community College
Mott Community College will manage the Building and Construction (BCON) Technology Employment Initiative. The project seeks to increase the number of WIA customers entering the BCON trades, create a fast-track certification process for semi-skilled workers to change careers or advance on the job, increase the number of young people seeking to enter the trades at high skill levels, increase the number of skilled carpenters trained in finish carpentry, and develop and deliver a certified surveyor program for college credit. We expect 383 individuals to be trained through these initiatives. Mott will also manage an advanced manufacturing project that provides focused intervention training to five regional companies to develop strategies that integrate the use of advanced technology tools to improve productivity